Sean Feucht is not your typical worship leader. He’s a worship leader at the megachurch Bethel Church in Redding, California. The church is known for its music and its popular music label, Bethel Music. He believes “Family values are being eroded, the unborn are sacrificed, morals are low, and taxes are high.”

So he’s running for Congress. 

A Voice of the People

Feucht (pronounced FOYT) is running against John Garamendi, a liberal Democrat with a lifetime 4.87 out of 100 rating from the American Conservative Union. Garamendi has represented California’s third congressional district for ten years. A successful politician, he’s been majority leader of the California senate, lieutenant governor, and twice elected state insurance commissioner.

The 36-year-old Feucht says his opponent has been in politics longer than he’s been alive. “It’s true; I don’t look like a member of Congress,” he posted on Instagram. “But when the fathers of this country created the house, they did so in order to establish a representative body who would champion the voice of the people of this great nation.”

An Oral Roberts University graduate with a major in business and a minor in music, he is married with four children.

So why would someone who’s been a huge success in his chosen field want to get into politics? He’s produced and released 20 albums. Been a missionary in over 50 countries. Written five books. Owns his business, and has also founded three nonprofits to help people around the globe.

Never Thought of Running for Congress Before

He never thought of running for Congress until now, he told talk show host David Harris, Jr. But over the last few months, something shifted in his heart. It goes back to when he was in high school. Feucht helped organize The Call, a prayer rally in Washington, D.C., held right before the 2000 presidential election.

Looking at the insanity of what his children are growing up with helped him decide to run. Sex education in schools teaches kids there are 15 genders. He calls it the brainwashing of the state. It’s ridiculous how you need a parent’s permission to get your ears pierced if under 16, he says, but you don’t need a parent’s permission to get a sex change. “In many ways the state of California owns your children.”

Things like needing a permit to cut down a tree on his own property bother him. “The governmental overreach and control is so absolutely crazy.” It’s driving people out of California.

“If we continue to walk a path where our values are not respected, where our faith is not tolerated, where life is not valued, where the family is not honored; our path will be one of destruction and decay,” he said in a Facebook post.

He said his ministry has led him to fight the persecution of Christians all over the world. But it’s also happening in the U.S. “Inside a church in Charleston, South Carolina, where believers were killed for their faith. Inside a classroom in Oregon where a shooter asked the Christians to stand up. Some did indeed stand up and were killed.”

Common Sense Campaign

Feucht says he just needs to run a common sense campaign. Americans understand that. He notes that California is a revival state, referring to the Jesus movement that emerged in response to the hippy movement. He wants to bring that revival back. He’s incorporating worship and prayer into his campaign.

With his ministry as a worship leader and his other work, he builds on high name recognition. His campaign says that he’s “known and loved by millions for his music and missions.” Now, it says, “he’s willing to sacrifice his mission for a greater one: to restore the identity, value, and morals of this great nation.”

California’s congressional district 3, north and east of San Francisco, is heavy with millennials, so he is hoping to appeal to that demographic. He hopes to appeal to Christians, noting there hasn’t really been an outspoken Christian political candidate like himself since Mike Huckabee, who is a couple of generations older.

And he hopes to rally conservatives. “I am running,” he told Fox News, “because it’s time for average Americans who have no desire to be politicians to stand up and change our country’s path before it’s too late.”

Feucht says he needs to raise 3 to 4 million dollars, but has no idea how he’s going to do it. He is using the same team that ran Ben Carson’s presidential campaign, so he should be in good hands.

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